Those leaving Yad Vashem should take with them the image of the next Holocaust being promoted in our own time.
By ROBERT G. KAUFMANVisitors at Yad Vashem 370(photo credit: Nir Elias/Reuters)
My wife and I spent a month in Jerusalem this past summer and returned to a Yad Vashem much expanded since our last visit.I was especially interested in seeing what I remembered as an extensive exhibit on Haj Amin al-Husseini, the notorious Mufti of Jerusalem.After completing the well-laid-out tour in the history hall I had still not found it. The people manning the entrance with maps and audio phones assured me that it had been removed to make room for newer, more politically correct topics.I was not convinced and came back the next day. I joined an IDF tour and asked the leader if she could help me, but she also thought it was gone. Finally the man at the table at the entrance to the hall gave me the correct answer. It was there, but small.He could not leave his post, but phoned for someone to help me.This man, after a few tries, located it in a small alcove behind the exhibit on Croatia.It was nothing like what I remembered, consisting only of a 1’ by 2’ panel of two photos, one showing the mufti talking with some Nazi official, and a long-distance shot of him reviewing the Bosnian Muslim troops he had recruited and trained for the Waffen SS.To the side was a brief bio on his incitement of Palestinian Arab violence, his participation in the pro-Nazi Iraq revolt and attempts to get the Germans to expand their extermination efforts to Palestine.The alcove was not in the path of tourist traffic, and was easy to miss.After asking random tourists most had no memory of having seen it, and tour guides who don’t think it is even there were not going to take anyone to it.
Why is this important? The museum tour is like a horror movie, dragging us from one atrocity to another. However, like a movie, it comes to an end. We leave with images of cheering crowds welcoming the liberators, people kissing in the streets and the eagle on the Brandenburg Gate exploding.It was a terrible journey, but we can breathe a sigh of relief that it is now over. But is it? We are struggling against a propaganda campaign painting Israel as Nazi Germany, among other sins.We have the weapons to fight this battle, if we are willing to use them.Those leaving Yad Vashem should take with them the image of the next Holocaust being promoted in our own time.One glaring omission from the tiny mufti exhibit is the iconic photo of his meeting with Hitler.That picture alone would be worth volumes.What the mufti accomplished was to unite the Holocaust with the Palestinian resistance movement in the minds of the Arab/Muslim world, including the “moderate” Fatah Party, whose charter, no different from Hamas, calls for Israel’s total destruction.The evidence is there for all to see.The Hamas Charter predicts the murder of every Jew on the planet, with rocks and trees joining in the slaughter. On the Friday after Oslo the then-mufti gave a sermon on the Temple Mount praising Hitler but criticizing him for not finishing the job.The first graduating class of PA police celebrated with the Nazi arm salute.The New York Times reported on German Storm troopers fighting and dying for the Arab side in 1948 at the invitation of the mufti.A few weeks ago Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu referred to the mufti, commenting on his mention by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas who praised him in glowing terms.Why would you on the one hand be promoting this information, when the one institution devoted to preserving these memories is doing everything possible to hide it in the corner? Those interested enough to take the Yad Vashem tour deserve to know its relevance in today’s struggles.The young soldiers need to know the true face of the enemy they are fighting.The one man most responsible for the Palestinian Arabs rejecting any peace with Israel is the mufti, and he had to kill a number of Arab leaders to accomplish this.My parents’ generation knew who the mufti was and what he stood for.Those of us alive today need to know this as well. When I return, and I hope it will be soon, I look forward to being properly educated and motivated.
